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The saga of Elon Musk and OpenAI — the AI giant he helped start a decade ago and later made a sour exit from — just took an interesting turn. According to The Wall Street Journal, a group of investors headed by Musk has submitted a bid worth $97.4 billion before the OpenAI board of directors to acquire the company’s non-profit wing. To recall, OpenAI started as a non-profit, but late last year, the company created a non-profit division to chase business goals while giving the non-profit arm an equity stake.
“It’s time for OpenAI to return to the open-source, safety-focused force for good it once was. We will make sure that happens,” Musk was quoted as saying by the Journal. Musk has vehemently challenged OpenAI’s pivot to the for-profit format, targeting its multi-billion-dollar deal with Microsoft and how the company’s CEO, Sam Altman, allegedly misled investors. The two are duking it out legally, and less than a week ago, a court even allowed some of the lawsuit to proceed.
The most interesting part about the latest acquisition bid is the parties involved in submitting the unsolicited offer. As per the report, Musk’s own AI venture, xAI, is leading the charge. If the deal proceeds, xAI could merge with the non-profit wing of OpenAI. Notably, Musk had reportedly sought a merger of OpenAI with Tesla years ago, but OpenAI leadership didn’t agree to those terms, according to a long post on the OpenAI blog in which the company claims that the billionaire himself wanted a for-profit model down the road.
If you can’t beat it, buy it?
The bid to acquire OpenAI’s non-profit arm reportedly has support from Valor Equity Partners, Baron Capital, Atreides Management, Vy Capital, and 8VC, among others. So far, OpenAI has yet to issue an official statement regarding the bid. The company, however, is currently sitting at the cusp of a major industry shift. With support from President Donald Trump, the AI giant recently announced Stargate, an ambitious project worth half a trillion dollars that entails building a massive AI data center infrastructure that will be completed over the next four years.
OpenAI has received backing from SoftBank, and has pledged to deploy a cool $100 billion towards its development with immediate effect. Notably, Musk was absent when the announcement was made at the White House, despite his close ties to Trump since his election campaign days and eventually heading White House’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to boost efficiency and cut spendings.
Swindler
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 10, 2025
Musk’s acquisition offer comes out of nowhere, but it seems the war of words has already begun. “No thank you but we will buy twitter for $9.74 billion if you want,” OpenAI chief, Sam Altman, posted on X minutes after the news broke. “Swindler,” responded Musk. Apparently, Musk wants to solve a problem by acquiring it, rather than competing against it. Musk recently argued in a court that he will be irreparably harmed if OpenAI is allowed to complete its for-profit transition, a claim that was said to be “a stretch” by a district court judge.
Source: http://www.slashgear.com/1785693/elon-musk-open-ai-bid-97-billion-sam-altman-plans-chatgpt/
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Musk recently argued in a court that he will be irreparably harmed if OpenAI is allowed to complete its for-profit transition